"Successful students’ learning in inclusive settings also integrating refugee and migrated children well is the overall goal of current school development activities in Europe. Empirical results prove that school leaders (SL) can influence better teaching and classroom management by setting up structures for teachers' learning. Professional learning communities (PLCs) are broadly discussed as successful method for teachers’ development. For leadership development they are hardly known, though. The HeadsUP project developed the method for professionalization of SL leaders to get them well experienced in PLC-work and raise their competencies on leadership and school development. According to this experience, school leaders focus better on their teachers' learning and invest in setting up teacher-PLCs in their schools and thus contribute to better students learning. This Double-decker model is the core idea of the project.In the field of leadership training the project is unique because it closes the gap that arises from an internationally run debate on leadership development that is not consequently leading into internationally linked learning opportunities. In the international scientific community, leadership development is a broadly discussed topic, but still there is little connection between the international debate and the ongoing training of school leaders, which is usually carried out with a national or even just regional orientation. The project ""HeadsUP- Heads Using Porfessional Learning Communities"" will overcome this gap by connecting leadership development on a transnational level and arrange a wide learning opportunity across counties. Combining the activities of regional working SL-PLCs in each country with transnational exchange methodically structured meetings, leadership conferences and through learning material, the project provides learning opportunities ranging from good-practice in leading and teaching diversity all over the countries to scientific expertise. In the project finally 22 SL-PLCs with 3-6 SL each work in six European countries. The partners laid out a learning environment by additionally facilitating the PLCs and getting them connected on several occations in the transnational network. Most of the SL initiated teachers-PLCs at their schools. Some focused primarily on their own learning and development of their PLC. The five universities, Weingarten, Feldkirch, Trondheim, Nikosia und Málaga and one municipality, Linköping, worked successfully together in the project and managed to gain new differentiated knowledge on SL-PLCs and how to run them successfully. The new knowledge they turned into five intellectual outputs which adress different audiences. A comprehensive Manual provides conceptual and practical hints for setting up PLCs. An Evaluation Report offers an empirical analysis of requirements, processes, benefits etc. of SL-PLCs. The Guideline gives a short introduction into the project, the method and some leading orientation for the establishment of SL-PLCs and leads readers to the Webpage. The webpage provides all intellectual outputs and give various insights in the activities and results of the multiplier events and the experiences by the particpants (www.plc-headsup.eu). Since the multiplier events were carried out as leadership conferences always referring to both, teaching successfully in inclusive settings and professionalizing well with PLCs, what there is to learn can be retraced by slides, pictures and summaries. Finally, a Learning Platform serves as an example how to support PLCs by blended learning and what kind of material and ways to exchcange can be applied.Through the intellectual outputs the consortium distributed the new method and the results of the exploration to the practical and also to the scientifical discourse on professional development at national/international conferences, by publications in scientific and school oriented papers and numerous exchanges, some conserted expert talks within the regional networks. It adressed two main groups of stakeholders: schools, school authorities and staff committees, teacher trainers and researchers in the field of leadership and school development. Current discussions in the network of the partners are enriched by the experiences won in the project. Setting up SL-PLCs was an initial point for the project team to engage furthermore in developing schools with PLCs. Even after the project ended the consortium still disseminates the results towards the two discourses and quotes it in all the papers the partners write on PLCs. Currently the consortium engages aditionally in adapting the method to other groups in the education system in order to have the benefit of the great idea also at universities (students-PLCs) and at higher level of school authorities (directors-PLCs). Practicing PLCs already in university studies provides schools with teachers that are already competent on PLC-work in the future."

Early childhood education it is therefore a very important element in a child's life and offer the opportunity to detect and respond to children’s individual needs and build their strengths.A high-quality preschool service can give a fair start to all children, especially those coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.The project partners recognize an essential role in pre-primary education to the play as is the major modality to stimulate the mental and physical capacity of children and to facilitate their adaptation to the requirements of formal education. Play can have a large impact on development and in particularly in social development, language skills and cognitive development.The partnership, consisting of 8 organisations from 5 EU countries(Sweden, Italy, Denmark, Spain and Belgium), recognize the need to improve teachers skills, considering the fact that among preschool staffs, in many EU educational systems, assistant can be employed without an initial qualification in ECEC. For this reason, this project meets the need of training preschool staffs and offering them a tool for evaluating the quality of the preschool services, making sure to give due importance to the play in children’s learning. In the light of 3 years project,the general objective of the project is to increase quality in early childhood education and care through the development of new knowledge on teaching approaches based on the role of playThe specific objectives are:1.To strengthen the skills of pre-school teachers through innovative play-based learning methodology2.To improve the quality of preschool services introducing transnational peer review- based processes in relation to learning methods The main expected results will be: the developed knowledge and improved competencies related to the different methodologies promoting play-based learning, the new teaching methodology and materials delivered focused on the central role of play, the improved European collaboration among peers in preschools and the deliver of tools for peer review-based processes The project activities include 6 transnational project meetings and 1 training seminar aimed at supporting the production of the main product of the project: the training methodology on play based learning and aimed at presenting the peer review tool to assess preschool services.Such products will be disseminated in the four countries of the partnership towards the key target groups of the project: Pre-schools managers and coordinators, municipal decision-makers, pre-school teachers, researchers and Professionals from other fields.The partnership consists of 3 local authorities and respective pre-schools (SE,IT, DK), a transnational network of local and regional authorities(IT) a University(SE), a University College (DK) and 2 preschools (BE, SP).

The recent migration waves have been posing increasing challenges to the national education systems and to the quality of education and learning at large. In particular, the presence of an increasing number of pupils with a foreign background in pre-schools, primary schools and lower secondary schools has opened up questions about how to adapt the learning context to a situation characterised by the presence of pupils in the classes not only with different cultural background but different levels of language knowledge. The partnership has decided to address more effectively the organizational settings of schools in relation to the continuity between levels (pre-school and primary and primary and lower secondary). In this light the learning spaces (both virtual and real) and methods facilitating inclusion while offering opportunities for development and achievements to all students are an important element to consider. Last but not least the training of the teachers and other staff to deal more effectively with a multicultural situation in the class.The project has aimed to contributing to a reflection on the creation of a learning context at local level and at school level which is able to meet the challenges posed by the recent migration waves.The specific objectives have been:1. To exchange good practices on the organizational settings facilitating transition across the different educational levels especially for those with a foreign background2. To reflect upon and adapt solutions which can lead to learning spaces producing a faster integration without jeopardize achievements of the whole class3. To identify training needs of teachers in relation to learning spaces and the specificities of multicultural classes and define a training path.The partnership is trilateral and it is led by a bilateral network of local and regional authorities (SERN), four municipalities (Ravenna, Collecchio, Linkoping and Norrkoping) , one association of schools (CECE), two schools (IC Guatelli and IC Da Vinci) and a university (University of Parma). The participants in the project have been: teachers at pre-school, primary and lower secondary level, Headmasters and school leaders, educators policy makers.The activities foreseen by the project consisted of four transnational meetings for coordination and management (TPM) ; four transnational seminars (LTTA) targeting transition between school cycles, learning environments and skills of the teachers, a pilot training course based on the exchange of practices targeting teachers. The project partnership organised also four local dissemination meetings.The main results achieved by the project have been: an increased awareness about the importance of organizational settings in schools leading to a smoother transition across levels, an improved knowledge about strategies facilitating transition among headmasters, policy makers and civil servants in the three countries; improved skills of the teachers pertaining learning environment fostering school results and integration, and Improved knowledge about practices on management of multicultural classes; new practices tested and transferred in particular from Sweden to Italy.

Quality in Early childhood education and care (ECEC) has gained an increasingly prominent position on European and national policy agendas. Quality of ECEC depends largely on the system as whole and on the competence of its components like staff, families and communities. The main problem that the partnership has identified and intends to address stands in the fact that involvement and participation of the parents and carers are scarcely or not sufficiently acknowledged as a key component contributing to quality of ECEC as a competent system.The project has pursued four specific objectives:1) To identify, test and mainstream best practices and innovative methods of participation particularly in context of diversity (socio-economic and cultural diversity, minorities, etc);2) To improve the teachers competences pertaining strategies and approaches the involvement of parent by learning from the experiences of colleagues from other countries in Europe ;3) To improve the integration and interaction of the different components of the system (children, practitioners, researchers, families, community);4) To address participation in ECEC as a process in a more effective way through quality indicators;The partnership consists of 11 partners from 7 EU countries. The organizations involved in the partnership are: 3 pre-schools, 2 local authorities managing pre-schools, 1 teachers training organization, 2 universities, 2 research centers, 1 transnational networks of local and regional authorities.The project has involved a total of 162 participants in the transnational meetings and training actvities and 618 participants in the multiplier events representing three main target groups: practitioners (pre-school teachers and managers, representative of local authorities and academics / trainers).The achievement of the goals was possible thanks to an implementation path based on the following macro phases. The first phase saw an analysis of national situations in relation to the topic in terms of existing policy framework and guidelines. This phase ended with the identification of practices on participation in the context of the partnership and made it possible to create a baseline for setting up the next phase. The second phase of the project was focused on defining the project's approach to the theme of participation with the definition of the four areas of participation (learning about the family, communicating with the family, deciding and acting together with the family, collaborating and cooperating with the community ) and the indicators connected to each area. The third phase was focused on identifying the practices to be deepened in the ligt of the focus areas and the indicators and the subsequent observation activity through job shadowing. The fourth step was to transfer and experiment on practices locally based on job shadowing results. Based on the transfer and the effectiveness of the practice in a European context other than the original one, the fifth phase of the creation of the toolbox prototype started. Subsequently the prototypes were shared with the stakeholders through the multiplication bodies (phase six) and on the basis of the feedback received, the paper and online versions were finalized (seven steps).The main results (impact resulting from the activities in the local contexts of the partners) of the project have been:Innovative forms of participation (enabling practices and methods) were identified, transferred in other EU countries and tested; A toolbox enhancing participation has been created including (introduction, instructions, focus areas, and best practices) and disseminated in 9 EU languages. The toolbox has both a paper version and online version;Increased interaction of the different components of the system (family members, practitioners, community)Increased competences of the ECEC staff pertaining participation Increased internationalization and stronger European dimension of the involved pre-schoolsDevelopment of more effective indicators addressing comprehensively the theme of participationOne of the main long term impact of the project has been an increased awareness locally and internationally and more centrality attached to participation of families and carers as a key component enhancing quality of the Early Childhood Education and Care